Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 38, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 March 1906 — GEN. J. M. SCHOFIELD DEAD. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

GEN. J. M. SCHOFIELD DEAD.

Former Head of Army Succumb® at st. Augnstiac, Fla. - Lieutenant General John M. Scofield, U. S. A., retired, former head of tbe army, died at St. Augustine, Fla., Sunday nights He was attacked Sunday morning with cerebral hemorrhage. His wife and young daughter were with him. He was born in New York seventyfour years ago. Ills father, a clergyman, removed to Illinois when his non was 12 years old, and John went to West Point as a cadet from Freeport, 111. He graduated from West Point hi 1853, standing seventh in the class, which included among Its members Generals McPherson, Sheridan. Sill, Terrill, R. O. Tyler, and the Confederate Hood. When tbe war broke out ’he was serving as professor of physics at Washington University, St. Louis, after many years of service in the South. He promptly entered the volunteer service of Missouri, and in November, 18G1, he was appointed brigadier general of volunteers. For several months in 1862 he commanded the district of the Missouri. In the early part of the next year he organized and commanded the army of the Frontier, which saw nard fighting in Missouri and Arkansas. He went back again in 1863 to the command of the Department of the Missouri, which he retained until Jan. 31, 1864. On that date he was assigned at the re-

quest of General Grant to the command of the department and army of the Ohio, forming the left wing of General Sherman’s army rn Georgia. In October of that year he commanded the troops opposed to General Hood’s army in Tennessee. In April, 1865, General Schofield received the surrender of General Johnston’s army. During President Johnson's administration he was Secretary of War from June, 1868, to March. 1869, then taking command of the Department of Jiia_ALiasmiri_wLtii.„tlie rank of major general. He held this for one year, with headquarters at St. Louis, when Jie was transferred to the command of the Department of the Pacific with headquarters at San Francisco, Cal. In the year 1876 he became superintendent of the West Point Military Academy. In 1881 he was assigned to the command of the Department of the Gulf, where he remained but three months. In 1882 be returned to the Pacific department to relieve General Sheridan, in command of the Departineht of t lieMhwou ri. He was made lieutenant general just before his retirement in 1595. SEA SWEEPS PACIFIC ISLANDS. Thonnandi Die Aiuld Devastation by Hurricane and Monster Wave. A disaster that recalls vividly the Galveston flood has lietalien the Society and Tuainotu islands in the Pacific Ocean, which have been swept by a hurricane of awful violence and inundated by enormous waves, the visitation causing a loss of lives estimated from hundreds do 10,900 and a projierty damage that may reach $5,000,000. Papeete, the capital of the Island of Tahiti, Ims been submerged, and Its principal buildings crushed like shells, while elsewhere whole villages have been swept away. Some of the islands are said to have disappeared entirely. Thousands of persons have been made homeless, and calls for relief have been sent out by the resident consuls to their governments. Details of the storm were brought to San Francisco by the steamer Mariposa, though the vessel left Pajjeete before tbe full extent of the destruction It wrought had been ascertained. The hurricane prevailed for sixteen hours on Feb. 8, the wind reaching a velocity of more than 100 miles an hour, causing a disturbance of unprecedented violence In the sea. Tlie storm came up In the night and reamed its greatest fury before warning could l»e given to the Inhabitants of the islands. Many were swept away on the first great waves. Others sought refuge in the tops of cocoanut trees, and It is feared that hundreds of these hitter victims must have jierlabed on the smaller Islands from hunger, thirst or exjtosure, before relief could be sent to them. There Is n small American colony at Papeete. and, while no fatalities among Its members are retmrted by the offieera of the Mariposa, they are certain that great distress and suffering uniat follow tlie storm mid that relief measures will be necessary.

GEN. J. M. SCHOFIELD.